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Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy

Learn how to achieve customer engagement when the customer is an organization, not an individual or household, and acquire the concepts and tools to implement a strategy to build competitive advantage.

Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy teaches you how to use the marketing function as a pivotal tool in building better customer relationships when the customer is an organization, not an individual or household.

Targeted to marketing, sales and product managers involved in the design of marketing strategy, the program is also valuable to general managers who seek to build an efficient marketing and sales function.

The program covers both strategic marketing issues (e.g. how to build a B2B brand for sustainable competitive advantage) as well as key aspects of implementation (e.g. how to align the sales force to customers’ decision processes).

In addition, the program includes many industry contexts, from commodities to differentiated products and services and highlights how some of the modern tools of marketing, like social media, can be used in a B2B environment. Case studies cover companies in industries like shipping, media and medical technology, among others.

Participants will enjoy a variety of teaching methods, as well: discussions, lectures, case studies, group work – where you become the decision maker.

Sample topics include the following:

How to build powerful B2B brands

How to differentiate from competitors

How to develop B2B Pricing contracts and methods

How to design, compensate and motivate the sales force

How to use social media for B2B marketing

The goal of Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy is to teach you how to become even more customer oriented in a business-to-business setting.

BENEFITS

While the program focuses on helping you design a consistent marketing strategy, it will also make you familiar with a number of tools that help you analyze the environment and implement your plan:

"Perceptual mapping" for differentiation and brand design

"Funnel analysis" for choosing the right communication channels and allocating optimal budgets to them

A methodology to determine the best sales force size

A framework to design an effective compensation system for the sales force

When you return to your organization after taking Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy, you will be more efficient at leading a productive sales and marketing team and will be able to integrate the marketing function into your company’s strategy-building process.

CURRICULUM

All three days of Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy use robust case studies to help participants dive deep into the topics.

Day One focuses on B2B branding strategy, key issues and techniques.

Participants will discuss the Becton Dickinson case, which provides rich material on the role of a B2B brand in creating competitive advantage. The day also includes a study of Bloomberg: how it took over Reuters and how and whether it might be challenged today with new social media technologies.

Day Two covers B2B pricing and communications, including social media marketing.

The case used will show how careful pricing can help avoid head-on competition. In addition, participants will focus on pricing contracts and how they distort or modify negotiation incentives. Finally, participants will learn how to analyze customers¹ decision-making process in the B2B sector and how to deploy communications strategies to address this process.

Day Three culminates in sales force management.

The day¹s case will cover soft incentives in sales, showing important design principles, and participants will learn the key concepts, tools and principles of sales force management – all building from cases studied earlier in the program.

TESTIMONIALS

Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy applies to you if you:

Have been promoted to a marketing position in a B2B company and want to get a comprehensive and efficient coverage of the state of the art in B2B marketing

Have been in a marketing position in a B2B company but want to get new ideas to reinvigorate marketing operations – especially related to social media

Are running a sales force and would like to improve the marketing-sales interface in your B2B firm.

FACULTY

Miklos Sarvary, Faculty Director
Carson Family Professor of Business
Faculty Director of the Media Program

Miklos Sarvary's expertise focuses on information marketing and media. He has used his research and experience to consult with such global companies as IBM, INTEL, Nokia, Alcatel, Samsung, Pearson, McKinsey & Co., Dun & Bradstreet, and PwC. He also has extensive experience in teaching executive courses. Before joining Columbia, he was the deputy dean for executive development programs at INSEAD, after having served as faculty at Harvard Business School and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Sarvary's early career began at IBM.

Sarvary is member of the editorial boards of Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Journal of Interactive Marketing. His most recent book is Gurus and Oracles: The Marketing of Information (2012).

Along with Professor Sarvary, additional Columbia Business School faculty contribute to and teach in the program.

Digital Marketing Strategy IIThis two-day workshop style program leads participants through the development of a strategic marketing plan for their businesses. Participants apply the strategic planning framework taught in Digital Marketing Strategy to real-world business challenges.

Program Details

Upcoming Sessions

Overview

Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy teaches you how to use the marketing function as a pivotal tool in building better customer relationships when the customer is an organization, not an individual or household.

Targeted to marketing, sales and product managers involved in the design of marketing strategy, the program is also valuable to general managers who seek to build an efficient marketing and sales function.

The program covers both strategic marketing issues (e.g. how to build a B2B brand for sustainable competitive advantage) as well as key aspects of implementation (e.g. how to align the sales force to customers’ decision processes).

In addition, the program includes many industry contexts, from commodities to differentiated products and services and highlights how some of the modern tools of marketing, like social media, can be used in a B2B environment. Case studies cover companies in industries like shipping, media and medical technology, among others.

Participants will enjoy a variety of teaching methods, as well: discussions, lectures, case studies, group work – where you become the decision maker.

Sample topics include the following:

How to build powerful B2B brands

How to differentiate from competitors

How to develop B2B Pricing contracts and methods

How to design, compensate and motivate the sales force

How to use social media for B2B marketing

The goal of Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy is to teach you how to become even more customer oriented in a business-to-business setting.

When you return to your organization after taking Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy, you will be more efficient at leading a productive sales and marketing team and will be able to integrate the marketing function into your company’s strategy-building process.

Program Details

Upcoming Sessions

Curriculum

All three days of Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy use robust case studies to help participants dive deep into the topics.

Day One focuses on B2B branding strategy, key issues and techniques.

Participants will discuss the Becton Dickinson case, which provides rich material on the role of a B2B brand in creating competitive advantage. The day also includes a study of Bloomberg: how it took over Reuters and how and whether it might be challenged today with new social media technologies.

Day Two covers B2B pricing and communications, including social media marketing.

The case used will show how careful pricing can help avoid head-on competition. In addition, participants will focus on pricing contracts and how they distort or modify negotiation incentives. Finally, participants will learn how to analyze customers¹ decision-making process in the B2B sector and how to deploy communications strategies to address this process.

Day Three culminates in sales force management.

The day¹s case will cover soft incentives in sales, showing important design principles, and participants will learn the key concepts, tools and principles of sales force management – all building from cases studied earlier in the program.

Program Details

Upcoming Sessions

Faculty

Miklos Sarvary, Faculty Director
Carson Family Professor of Business
Faculty Director of the Media Program

Miklos Sarvary's expertise focuses on information marketing and media. He has used his research and experience to consult with such global companies as IBM, INTEL, Nokia, Alcatel, Samsung, Pearson, McKinsey & Co., Dun & Bradstreet, and PwC. He also has extensive experience in teaching executive courses. Before joining Columbia, he was the deputy dean for executive development programs at INSEAD, after having served as faculty at Harvard Business School and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Sarvary's early career began at IBM.

Sarvary is member of the editorial boards of Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Journal of Interactive Marketing. His most recent book is Gurus and Oracles: The Marketing of Information (2012).

Along with Professor Sarvary, additional Columbia Business School faculty contribute to and teach in the program.

Digital Marketing Strategy IIThis two-day workshop style program leads participants through the development of a strategic marketing plan for their businesses. Participants apply the strategic planning framework taught in Digital Marketing Strategy to real-world business challenges.

Testimonials: Return on Learning

Julia MerkelESPRIT, SVP Global-HR
– “The return on investment is the chance to trigger business and people with the latest research, cutting edge and inspiring methods for evaluation and development, and leadership with collective power.”